The invention relates to a method and apparatus for managing and facilitating communications in a distributed heterogeneous network.
Information system planners are faced with a wealth of new technology including powerful processes at every level of the system. Such processes include, for example, desktop systems, main frame systems, cooperative processing, graphical user interfaces, distributed data bases and so-called "open" operating systems, which are just a few of the technological advances that promise to propel computing even more fully into the daily activities of people in organizations. The proliferation of communication networks to connect these processes over the past several years has increased the potential for users of the information systems to share information.
Such computer networking resulted in gains in productivity and efficiency, and networked computer systems provide access to a vast information repository. Every major hardware and software vendor in the world has created networked platforms and applications. With such proliferation, connecting these disparate communication networks and operating platforms so that they can cooperate and interoperate to allow information in physically separate networks to be integrated seamlessly has been a problem.
Corporations are moving rapidly toward implementing large scale strategic computing systems that integrate all components of an enterprise. These complex computer systems will be based on networks capable of supporting large numbers of personal computers, file servers, and multiple links to disparate main frame systems. Data and processing will be distributed throughout the network in cooperative processing applications. In addition, such distributive cooperative processing will allow enterprises to keep pace with rapid technological change while protecting past investment in information structure. Enterprise connectivity, transparent seamless data transfer, and increased transaction processing are just some of the growing requirements facing modern enterprises.
In conjunction with the increased demand for distributed environments, there has been an increase in on-line transaction processing. With the advent of high performance hardware and improved operating systems, on-line, mission critical applications are being developed and implemented outside of the main frame environment. It has been projected by the Vertical Systems Group that local area network originated messages across Wide Area Network Systems will increase in size 690% (21K to 145K) by 1994 with a corresponding 30% reduction in transport time (1.5 seconds to 1.05 seconds).
In addition to these factors, there is an increasing requirement for interoperability among various vendor hardware platforms and across unlike networks. The desire for vendor independence without the associated costs (both in development and productivity), is driving the support of open systems and common communication interfaces.
In a traditional environment, applications are forced to perform the activities that are not only germane to the business needs, but also to the communications network needs. If an application were viewed as a column with the user interface at the top of the column, the interface development at the bottom of the column becomes a customization process specific to the communications network environment. This customization inhibits the movement of the application to other environments, and it limits change to the communications network or operating environment without impact to the application. Typically, this impact is two-fold, first the cost of the application rewrite, and second, the cost of supporting two applications performing the same tasks during cut-over. For a single platform change in a reasonably-sized environment, hundreds of applications may be affected, significantly impacting development and computing resources.
In order to avoid such customization of application, it would be desirable to have a standard communications network interface independent of the different types of communications networks used in the system.